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Dell Joins Buyback Parade in Big Way

NEW YORK ( TheStreet) -- Dell ( DELL) became the latest company to join the buyback parade on Tuesday, announcing an additional $5 billion authorization.

The Round Rock, Texas-based computer maker said its board approved the authorization in addition to the $2.16 billion still available to purchase the stock under its previous repurchase program.

"With this additional commitment from the Board, we have the flexibility to continue making opportunistic share repurchases as a key element of our disciplined capital allocation strategy," said Brian Gladden, the company's chief financial officer, in a statement.

The stock saw an immediate boost in late trades, advancing 2.3% to $14.71 on volume of 1.9 million, according to Nasdaq.com. Based on Tuesday's regular session close at $14.38, the shares were up 3.1% so far in 2011.

The company is currently in its fiscal third quarter ending in October, and is slated to report those results on Nov. 15. The consensus estimate of analysts polled by Thomson Reuters is for a profit of 46 cents a share in the three-month period on revenue of $15.72 billion.

The analyst breakdown on Dell is slightly bullish with 19 of the 37 ratings on the stock at either strong buy (14) or buy (5), and the remainder split between hold (13), underperform (4) and sell (1).

As of the end of its fiscal second quarter in July, Dell had $16.2 billion in cash and investments, a level the company said was a "record high." It repurchased $1.1 billion worth of its stock in the second quarter.

2011 is shaping up as a banner year for buybacks. According to research last week from Birinyi Associates, August saw 198 new authorizations as the stock market endured epic volatility, prompting the firm to say on Sept. 8: "We have not had a month of this significance since February 2008," when 199 programs were announced.

Year-to-date, Birinyi has tracked $367 billion worth of repurchase authorizations, up 44% from the equivalent period last year, and putting 2011's run-rate at $550 billion, on track for the third largest year ever, the firm said, behind $655 billion in 2006 and $863 billion in 2007.